As I wilt away in my desk chair pushing buttons on a keyboard, I can’t help but wonder if this is all I’ll be doing until I’m 75. If so, fml.
I’m considering making a change into academia. I’ve taught adjunct courses in the past and truly enjoyed myself. I also received glowing feedback per student assessments. What could someone like me do with a CFA, MBA, ETC in a university setting? Is full time work available for someone like me? Or will a Ph.D. be required? The thought of becomming a college instructor while pursuing my Ph.D. has been floating through my mind the past few months. Life is just too short to be mediocre and sit in front of several LCD monitors for 50+ hours a week.
PhD is normally required in most disciplines; however business schools and increasingly other disciplines are hiring “professors of practice” to address the concerns that academics are too disconnected from the real world.
If you’ve been an adjunct and taught well, and you have demonstrated evidence of knowing at least some of the theory of your course in more than superficial depth, I’d say that it’s worth exploring.
If teaching is not how you make your living and you just want to adjunct, that also is possible. Adjuncting pays crap, as you probably know, but other than that, it’s quite rewarding if you like teaching.
I actually went into academe in part because I came from an academic family and it was just subtly implied tha “of course you want to do that,” but the other part is that if you are any good at thinking and teaching, you don’t become useless at some retirement date. You may have to make space for younger folks in the department, but yur ideas and advice are always valuable.
In the business world, experience in decision making is, valuable, so that can be sold.
Findig a place can take a long time, so start building your connections in business schools now and see what opens up over time.
I have nothing but respect for that view and I truely hope this works out for you. I don’t have any experience that can help you, but I do know some ppl who are pursuing a PhD and teaching seminars/tutorial classes of around 20-30 students per class at the same time…with your experiences and qualifications I don’t see why teaching in academia would be an issue…maybe teach summer school classes first (if possible) to get some experience?
^ Thank You. I feel I’m better placed to sell pans than pan for gold. I’ve earned credentials and educational degrees, but overall I’m a slow learner. However, I am very diligent and clear when explaining otherwise boring convoluted topics. Students who were purusing a marketing role and hated numbers had a new respect for finance after I taught them.
I have a meeting set to speak with one of my b school professors. Hopefully they will be able to shed some real light on my ambition.
But seriously I could see maybe teaching one course on the side but I wouldn’t want to do it for a career. I took a bunch of CS courses at BU and none of the instructors had PhDs, they all worked in tech and taught on the side. Would you really want to teach 3 hour courses a few times a week? That’s what you would be doing adjunct. It pays sh*t as well a few grand a class. Plus the faculty is never going to treat you as an equal.
And Blake, I know how the adjunct game works. I’ve taught some core finance classes in the past and yes, they pay like nothing. I did it to stay sharp on my material, dip my toe in the teaching world, and do something other than post on AF and chase HCBs. I had a good time doing it and given where I’m at now, I’d have no qualms hanging it all up and molding young minds as a full time instructor pursuing a Ph.D. I really don’t want to be 55 and still stuck in the grind of pushing keys on a keyboard day in and day out.
hey CFAvsMBA how old are you? The older you are, the more experience you have, the more likely you will be a guest lecturer and the easier it is to accumulate teaching experience…right?
If you aren’t teaching at a top MBA school, then one of the things that they’d like about you are your industry contacts. Anything that can help connect their students to potential jobs is great for them, and business schools like to advertise (for understandable reasons) how their faculty have practical as well as academic experience. The top schools don’t have as much trouble with recruiting and placement, so those connections would be most appealing if you go one tier downward or so.
The concern with people brought in from industry is that teaching well is a lot harder than it looks (as I’m sure you learned while adjuncting). If you got rave reviews while adjuncting, play up that experience.
Personally, I think it would be a dream to work as a PM in a partnership and teach an adjunct class somewhere with halfway decent students. You pay your bills with the investment work; you get more personal satisfaction (and stay sharp) by teaching. You can select your best students as potential interns. You have partners in your firm so that you aren’t on call 24-7. Most universities do allow their adjuncts more liberties with things like cancelling classes if you have a meeting you must take, etc. Ultimately, that’s what I would like to arrange for myself (though I’m still working on the paying the bills enough part).
On paper in sounds like an awesome concept. You get to “help” people. Well, when you are teaching 3 hour night courses from 6-9 pm and correcting your own papers I don’t think anyone is going to be having fun. Expecially after a 2-3k check for a semesters work.
You want to help people? Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Do the Big Brother program. Those people need help. Students taking university courses don’t need any help.